The 2014 World Cup winner’s fan club on Chinese search engine Baidu has been removed by its founder, who said in a statement: “In front of national interest, any individual hobby doesn’t matter any more.”

On social media website Weibo, Ozil’s account, which has four million followers, was still there on Monday morning, but there has been no update since 11 December.

Geng said: “I don’t know if Mr Ozil has been to Xinjiang himself – but it seems he has been deceived by fake news, and that his judgment was influenced by untruthful remarks.

“If Mr Ozil has the opportunity, we will be pleased to see him go to Xinjiang and have a look.”

What do we know about China’s treatment of Uighurs?

The Uighurs are a mostly Muslim minority group, about 11 million of whom live in western China’s Xinjiang region.

China has been widely accused of detaining Uighurs without trial in a network of high-security prison camps, where they are made to learn Mandarin Chinese, swear loyalty to President Xi Jinping, and criticise or renounce their faith.

China’s claims that the camps are for voluntary “re-education” purposes have been undermined by leaked official documents, seen by BBC Panorama, that detail how inmates are locked up, indoctrinated and punished.

Instructions in the documents call for the camps to be run as high-security prisons with no escapes, and say detainees are awarded points for their “ideological transformation, study and training, and compliance with discipline”.

Former prisoners have told the BBC of physical and psychological torture they allegedly suffered.

Ozil kicked his glove into the air after being substituted in Arsenal’s loss to Manchester City